Abstract

The first phase of the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) has been deployed at the end of 2010. Currently, the array consists of 24 stations distributed over an area of 0.5 km2. AERA has three different objectives. The first one is to measure cosmic-ray events and to provide the necessary data to improve our understanding of radio emission from air showers. The second objective is to develop and test the instrumentation for the next generation of MHz radio-detection setups for airshower studies based on self-triggering methods. The third one is to explore cosmic-ray physics in the transition region with an energy range between 0.1 and 10 EeV.
With this first phase of AERA, self-triggered events were recorded and used for physics analysis. Moreover, various types of hardware and different trigger strategies for the next stages including cross-triggering with the surface detector are being tested with the current setup. The paper will firstly report the current status of the detector. Then, it will focus on the available events and summarize the ongoing analyses. Finally, we will discuss the plan for the next phase in 2012-2013.